Writing Freely and Hypnotically: Put Your Readers in a Writing 'Trance'

One of my favourite books on writing is Dr Joe Vitale’s "Hypnotic Writing." It's good because it's full of so much useful informa­tion. It's also good because it's written "hypnotically", so once I start reading, I can't stop.

And that is exactly what hypnotic writing is. It's written in such a way that the reader can't stop reading, which is exactly what we want from our writing, isn't it? We want our readers to be drawn quickly and deeply into what we have to say. 

And hypnotic writing is actually easy to do.

In the book, the author says that we have two Inner Writers, so inside all of us we have two inner selves.

Self One is the critic.

Self two is the master writer. 

Self one is a critic who picks on everything we write, so this is the one to ignore (easier said than done).

Self Two is a master writer. The author says, “When you allow the Master Writer to write freely and not be impeded by Writer One, the critic, you can do your most extraordinary writing. This is usually called 'free writing' and it's fun.

3 Steps to Free Writing

Step One. Set a goal of not only what you want to write, but also what you want

to achieve from it:

A sale? 

A Sign up? 

A drama? 

A comedy?

Step Two. Start writing and stay in the moment. Ignore Self One, the critic, and don't let him into your head.

Working this way is what Stephen King calls" the writer's trance." This trance is only possible if you can write without interruption from your inner critic.

Step Three. Trust what you're writing, whether you think it's good or bad. Just allow Self Two, the master writer, to come through completely, and you're writing will be great. If it’s not, it's because you allowed Self One to guide you.

Self Two, the master writer, will always come through if you give him complete freedom to do so.

Just plan what you want to write, then release Self Two. Trust him no matter what, and he will come through for you. 

I believe this 100% because my best writing is when I'm free writing.

" There is no great writing, only great rewriting."

    ~ EB white.

Write first and edit later. 

Hypnotic writing helps in the editing stage when you make improvements and make it all perfect so that your writing really works for you. You may even need to tidy up only a few sentences.

If you haven't tried it before, do it right now. Plan and then free write for just ten minutes. Release your creative master writer and silence your inner critic.

Just keep writing and see how hypnotic your writing really can be.

Hypnotic Writing: How to Seduce and Persuade Customers with Only Your Words
https://amzn.to/3ID9dO3

Doing The Math of Daily Word Counts

I was reading an online discussion recently between a group of so-called writers about how difficult it is to find time to write.

I called them 'so-called' writers because they all blamed a lack of time every day for their lack of writing. Hence, the term 'so-called.'

Not having enough time to write is a common grievance for many writers who want to write more, but they say there aren't enough hours in a day.

I say that's nonsense. Twenty-four hours a day is more than enough time to write.

Back when National Novel Writing Month was a thing, most people found it difficult to write a 50,000-word novel in a month.

I tried it two years in a row (a long time ago) and it's how I wrote my first novel, Playing For Real, which is still selling today.

Being my first novel, it was a bit of a shock to write so many words in such a short time, but my novel worked out to over 70,000 words. To be able to finish the first draft in a month, I had a detailed outline ready so that all I had to do was write, write, write

I also broke down the math of how many words I needed to write every day, and the following is the math of the daily word count to write a novel in a month.

It's well-known that many writers only write for 2 hours a day. So I figured on aiming for that.

Most writers average writing 1,000 words an hour, so 2 hours of writing is 2,000 words a day. For me, that was 10 A4 pages of writing.

- 2,000 words a day for 30 days is 60,000 words

- 2,000 words a day for 20 days ( 5 days a week for 4 weeks = weekends off) is 40,000 words

So I figured that if I wrote my novel in 2 hours a day for 20 days, it wouldn't add up to 50,000 words. But I'd probably write faster as I went along, so even if I didn't write on the weekends (I had a job and family obligations back then), I could still make the 50,000-word goal.

And I managed to write 20,000 words more than the expected 50,000. 

Now I'm not saying that everyone can write 50,000 words every month, but everyone can try. And as we know from experience, whatever we do regularly and consistently becomes faster and easier. 

And it's the same with writing. Working just 2 hours a day means you could start producing between 50k and 100k words a month. You may not be able to write that much every month, but imagine how great it will feel during the months that you do.

The math says it's possible, so all you (and I) need to do is make it happen.

The 12 Month Writing Challenge
Write and Publish 12 Books in a Year
https://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/12MTH.html 

Copying Other Writers

 I’ve always loved to read about how other writers work. Not how they write, but how they structure their time. I can’t even say why this subject fascinates me, but it always does.

I used to subscribe to a UK writing magazine (I think it was called ‘Writing Magazine’), and it had an ongoing series called “My Writing Day.”

The series was interviews with successful writers about their lives and how they structured their writing time.

Some writers wrote every day, while others wrote in writing sprints for a day or two or a week or more, and they talked about what time of day they wrote and where they wrote. I always found it so interesting.

But I did notice that the way they described their lives sounded somewhat simple and predictable, making it easy to fit in plenty of time to write.

My life always seems somewhat chaotic with unexpected things happening all the time, no matter how much I try to plan and schedule my days.

But I do learn a lot by reading about how other writers work. One thing I did learn was to not try and be like any of them. We all have to do things our own way.

What else I’ve learned over time is:

- Not to try and force things to happen, just let them happen, and they will. 

- To know how I feel about things in my life. 

- To only do things that are fun.

Fun doesn’t mean only leisure activities. It can be renovating a house, working in the garden, or even cleaning the car. I love the satisfaction I get from working on big projects, so it makes them fun to do.

And this carries over into my writing. I only want to write things I love to write about. This makes it fun, keeps up my enthusiasm to do it, and makes my writing more authentic.

If you pay attention to what you love doing, it’s easy to love your life, be your authentic self, and enjoy what you do.

Mission Critical For Life

The 10 timeless lessons in this little book will help you to go from social awkward to extremely confident and help you gain more acceptance, more peace of mind and more money than you ever thought possible.

https://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/MCFL.html

When Life Gets in the Way: My Writing Slump During a Big Move

I haven't written here for several weeks now. But it's not just here on my blog. I haven't done any writing at all for the last few weeks.

As I said recently, Dean and I have been refurbishing a house ready for moving in.

Naturally, as with everything in life, it took longer than expected. It was compounded by the problem of the company supplying our new kitchen and bathroom being weeks behind schedule, plus they made many mistakes that they had to come and correct, like the oven being installed crookedly, one kitchen cupboard door hanging down off its hinges, and installing the wrong kitchen sink tap. But in the end, we managed to move in, after spending twelve-hour days here doing most of the work ourselves.

It was so exhausting getting up early every morning and going to the new house to work straight after breakfast, and not getting home till well after dark. We'd then have showers, have dinner, then fall into bed late, only to get up and do it all again the next day.

So that is why I've been unable to write. Too physically exhausted and feeling brain-dead by the end of the day. But now we've moved in and after two weeks( exactly) we've unpacked everything, shopped for groceries(food stocks were pretty depleted) and regained full use of our aching limbs. Our arms and legs were stiffening up every night from all the physical labour.

One positive thing about being so busy every day was that it gave me plenty of time to think. And I thought about everything:

• My health
• My diet
• My income
• The books I want to write
• Marketing to sell more books
• My blog and how to improve it
• My websites and additions to make
• How to make social media work for me
• Doing more freelance submissions
• Doing more sewing, knitting, and crocheting
• My best hours for writing
• How to schedule my working days better
• And a whole lot more.

I also thought a lot about how much I dislike painting walls and skirting boards, how much I wished that so-called 'professional' cabinet makers could install a kitchen and bathroom correctly, and how much I wanted my normal life back.

Yesterday we took a well-deserved day off and went to the beach. We had lunch in a park, and then I sat and wrote out plans in my notebook for all the things I thought about while we were fixing and decorating our new house. As I sat and wrote, I realised just how much 

I'd missed writing, and I wondered why it was so. Is writing simply something I like to do, or is it an addiction?

I figured that it's not an addiction otherwise I wouldn't have been able to go without doing it for nearly two months.

And it's more than something I just enjoy doing because I can't imagine my life without writing being a part of it.

I think that being a writer is my mission in life. It's a part of who I am. It's not a job I do, it's what I have to do, and I can't imagine retiring from it when I get to old-age pension age.

I guess I'm Mission Critical For Life when it comes to writing. And that's a great way to be.

And if you're interested, here are a couple of before-and-after shots inside our new house.

Old Hallway

New Hallway

Old Living Room

New Living Room